HAMILTON, N.Y. (1/21/09) – Sophomore Mike Venezia (Westfield, NJ) tallied a career-high 20 points to lead Colgate to a 58-45 win over Lehigh in Patriot League action Wednesday night at Cotterell Court.

Colgate (6-11, PL 2-2) wins for the first time this season on its home court in six outings.  Lehigh dropped to 11-7 overall and 1-3 in league play.

Colgate's Willie Morse (State College, PA) was in double figures for the third time this season with 10 points, while Alex Woodhouse (Alexandria, VA), Yaw Gyawu (Lilburn, GA) and Ben Jonson (Dallas, TX) had seven apiece.

Dave Buchberger with 13 points and Zahir Carrington with 11 points and nine rebounds led the Mountain Hawks' attack.

Lehigh jumped out to a 10-2 lead, before Colgate scored nine straight points to move in front.  Venezia had the final five points in the run for the Raiders.  After Lehigh came back to take a 14-11 lead with 10:10 remaining, Colgate put together a 14-2 run to open a nine-point advantage, 25-16, with 1:33 left in the first half.  The Raider defense held Lehigh to one field goal over the final 10 minutes of the first half en route to a 25-18 halftime advantage.

In the second half, Colgate quickly jumped out to a nine-point advantage, before the Mountain Hawks were able to cut the deficit to five points, 31-26, with 16:10 left.  The Raiders then went on an 8-3 run to up their lead to 10 points, 39-29, with 11:15 remaining.

Lehigh came back to trail 44-38 with 4:56 remaining, but Morse hit a three-point dagger from the corner as the shot clock expired, and Venezia nail a bucket followed by Jonson's 3-pointer for a 14-point lead with 1:34 left.

Colgate shot only 32 percent in the first half, but came back with 47 percent in the second half.  The Raider defense was outstanding limiting Lehigh to 29.6 percent shooting, including 1-of-17 from 3-point range.  Colgate held the edge on the boards, 39-32.

The Raiders travel to Bucknell on Saturday for the start of a two-game Patriot League road trip.

(Boxscore)